quilting on silk

[Margo C.]

I have a 15 inch square of hand painted silk that I would like to border with pieced blocks. What product would be best for stabilizing the silk? Any tips for quilting on the silk would be greatly appreciated! (type of needle, thread, batting ..) Thanks for the help!

[Margo C.]

It depends on what type of silk it is. If it's dupioni, which is somewhat thick, it doesn't need a stabilizer. If it's Charmeuse, which is quite slippery, you may want a very thin interfacing on it. However, I would hesitate to use an iron on interfacing even if it is slippery silk... silk needs extremely low heat. High heat ruins it. It's also sensitive to water... it can leave water spots as it dries. Since many interfacings need steam and high heat to adhere, that would put me on high alert. And you say it's painted too... so it's unknown if the paint can be heated also.

So I think I'd NOT use any iron on product on it. If you want, you can use a thin fabric layer behind it. Either a Sew In Interfacing or muslin which you'd just baste to the seam allowance edges to add body. Also, your outer pieced blocks will act as a stabilizer of sorts too, in that it will hold the edges square and flat. Be sure to use a larger seam allowance than 1/4" if you see that your silk is unraveling easily.

As for quilting, silk quilts beautifully. Use the smallest size needle you can and still get nice stitches and no thread breaks. On a longarm, I'd suggest a size 16. On a DSM, perhaps an 11 or even a 9, if you can. You have to test first. I would not mark the quilt because it might be hard to get the marks out. For thread, any thin thread would be nice. So Fine, Aurifil 50 Cotton Mako, Masterpiece or even Silk thread. If the piece is shiny, then perhaps a shiny poly like Isacord would look nice.

Batting, again, whatever you like. I'd just stay away from super fluffy scratchy poly from the big box store. I love Quilters Dream Battings, so I might use their cotton or blend or poly (which is very soft).

HTH... please post a picture when it's done!

[Betty J.]

From my days as a fashion designer/sewist I learned that one of the very best stabilizers for silks is very lightweight batiste--I found the much lower cost blends are just fine for this purpose. I will say that I have never quilted with this combination however, but it worked wonderfully for special occasion clothing. I think I would choose to use a smooth lightweight batting, such as Hobbs Thermore either alone or coupled with a wool batting on top rather than a cotton batting, because the silk will show all the bumps in the batting. I have worked extensively with silk for clothing, but not much in quilting. Hope you will post pictures.

[Margo C.]

Great advice, 2L and BJ!!

[Margo C.]

Thank you so much for sharing your expertise. ( FYI The dyes used are steam set so that the crepe de chine silk can be washed.) I appreciate your help!